South Carolina Senate Bill 308 - It's About Time

Late last week the news broke that the South Carolina House had overwhelmingly approved and sent Senate Bill #308 to Governor Nikki Haley for signature, and the liberals and gun-grabbers immediately went into a frenzy. Of course, this is to be expected anytime a legislative body of any kind does anything to guarantee the Second Amendment rights of the citizens, so we should be used to this kind of thing by now.

For those of you not familiar with the provisions of the bill, it does several things: it lengthens the time that a Concealed Weapons Permit is valid, it provides for improved training and certification, expands the methods and places that you can carry a weapon in a vehicle, streamlines and improves the application/renewal process, and most importantly for those of us who have a CWP, it allows a CWP holder to carry concealed in an establishment that serves alcohol for consumption and prohibits the holder from consuming while doing so.

So out of the list of things I just mentioned, guess which one the liberals and gun-grabbers totally ignored and which one they centered all of their attention on.

If you said they totally ignored the part about providing for improved training and certification, you'd be correct. If you said they chose instead to center their attentiona bout the part where you can now carry concealed in a place where alcohol is consumed, you'd also be correct. And if you're as familiar with the "logic" (how I hate to use that term in this case) of the liberals and the gun-grabbers as I am, none of that comes as a surprise.

What this bill means to me, basically, is that I no longer have to disarm to take my wife out to eat. Prior to the bill I had two choices: leave the weapon at home, which goes against every fiber of my being, or leave the weapon in the car - which also goes against every fiber of my being. Leaving the weapon in the car invites it to be stolen and then possibly used in the commission of a crime, and wouldn't the liberals and the gun-grabbers just love that! I can see the headlines now: "Weapon Owned By CWP Holder Used In Crime!" Of course, they'd use the term "owned" instead of "stolen from," but we all know that. No, leaving the weapon in the car is not a good choice, not even if you lock it in the trunk.

And leaving it at home kinda defeats the whole purpose of having a CWP in the first place. After all, if you're going to get accosted or robbed while out and about, statistics show that you're most likely to be accosted in the parking lot while you're either walking from or back to your car. Your chances of being accosted inside the restaurant are slim to none. The parking lot is where the bad guys ply their trade, and that's the place where you need the weapon the most.

This, of course, is something that is totally lost on the liberals and the gun-grabbers, and I fully believe it's that way by their own design. The first thing you heard from this group of malfeasants was that South Carolina was going to turn into the Old West, with drunken shootouts taking place in the streets of Five Points and inside every bar in the state. This is, of course, the same thing the liberals and gun-grabbers said was going to happen in Florida when that state became the first state to pass a "must-issue" CWP law way back in the '90s, and of course that didn't happen. (Statistics from the FBI have shown that crime has actually decreased in that state since the passing of the law, as it has done in every state that has passed a similar law since.) And as it didn't happen then, it's not going to happen now.

The main thing that the liberals and gun-grabbers refuse to realize is this: if a person is mature and responsible enough to be trusted with carrying a weapon and granted a Concealed Weapon Permit, they're also mature and responsible enough to be trusted not to drink alcohol while armed. And since the people with CWPs are law-abiding citizens, they will obey that part of the law that says they can't drink while armed. It's as simple as that. (Besides, if you're not going to drink, why go into a bar anyway?)

Another thing that the liberals and gun-grabbers choose to ignore is the fact that there are already guns in bars throughout the state and the nation, and it's the bad guys who have them. The good guys don't, because up until the bill is signed it's illegal to carry concealed in a bar or restaurant. In the Columbia area in the past couple of months there have been several shootings in parking lots of bars, and they all have the same things in common: the participants were all drunk, they were all out in the parking lot, and none of them were CWP holders. But of course, you won't read that in the paper or hear it on the news; no, all you'll hear is that there was ANOTHER shooting.

Personally, I think this amendment to the law is long overdue. It's about time the state of South Carolina brought itself into line with the majority of states who have CWP laws and who allow their permit holders to carry concealed in a restaurant or bar. We've proven that we can be trusted by getting the permit to begin with, and it's about time that the state recognized this by doing away with a provision of the law which prevented us from being armed where it was most important - in the parking lots. To me, this is just one more step in the slow process of formal, legal recognition of the fact that weapons in the hands of law-abiding citizens is the answer and not the problem.

Now if only the liberals and gun-grabbers would realize that.

Nah, I ain't holding my breath.

IHC